"People's Republic" is a title used by certain republican states. Initially associated with populism (people's movements: Völkisch movement, Narodnik, others), it eventually became associated with countries adhering to communism, after the creation of the Soviet Union, such as China. However, the term is not unique to communist states. Many countries adopted the title given its rather generic nature, like Bangladesh, which was founded as a liberalparliamentaryrepublic after a popular war of independence.

The motivation for using this term lies in the claim that Marxist–Leninists govern in accordance with the interests of the vast majority of the people, and, as such, a Marxist–Leninist republic is a people's republic. Many of these countries also called themselves socialist states in their constitutions; Albania, for instance, used both terms, "socialist" and "people's", in its official name from 1976 to 1991. In the West, countries governed by Marxist–Leninists are referred to as "Communist states", though they never actually used this name for themselves. In the 1990s, many of the People's Republics of Eastern Europe (Poland, Hungary, and Bulgaria) and Mongolia dropped the term and became known simply as "Republics" as they adopted liberal democratic systems of government — the term "People's Republic" being associated with the former Communist governments.

The current nominally Communist or socialist states that include the words People's Republic in their full names: